Germany E.coli cucumber death toll rises to 14 - Yahoo! News

BERLIN (Reuters) - An E. coli outbreak linked to contaminated cucumbers that has killed 14 people and made more than 300 seriously ill in Germany has spread to other north European countries and is expected to worsen in the coming week. "We hope that the number of cases will go down but we fear that it will worsen," said Oliver Grieve, spokesman for the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein in north Germany, where many of those afflicted are being treated. The source of the virulent strain of the bacteria is unknown, German authorities said on Monday ahead of a crisis meeting of federal and state officials in Berlin. Most of the deaths have been in northern Germany. The E. coli pathogen has been identified on cucumbers imported from Spain but it is unclear if they were contaminated there, during transport or in Germany. There are 36 cases of suspected E. coli in Swe...